Turkish leisure carrier SunExpress – the joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines – has reported revenue climbed 10 per cent in 2018 on the back of rising capacity and passenger numbers.
The said it generated a revenue of about €1.3 billion. The number of passengers welcomed on board in 2018 reached almost 10 million and the load factor was 84 per cent.
The carrier has added nine new destinations for the summer of 2019 – a capacity increase of 20 per cent with six million seats to Turkey from Europe this year and seven million seats from Europe to Antalya alone in summer 2019.
It will fly to four new cities from Antalya: Oslo in Norway, Gothenburg in Sweden, Eindhoven in Netherlands and Prague in Czech Republic. During the summer of 2019, the airline will fly to a total number of 36 international destinations from Antalya.
From Izmir it has added three new routes and will offer 1.7 million seats to Izmir. New international destinations from Izmir this summer will be Eindhoven in the Netherlands, St. Petersburg in Russia and Marseille in France, taking the destinations from Izmir to 32.
From Anatolia it is increasing capacity this year by 30 per cent, compared to 2018. It will offer flights from 12 cities and this year it has added Kütahya/Zafer and Malatya to its existing Anatolian network.
SunExpress’ new routes this summer from Anatolia will be Düsseldorf-Malatya, Düsseldorf-Kütahya/Zafer, Cologne-Samsun, Stuttgart-Diyarbakir, Stuttgart-Konya and Oslo-Konya.
Chief executive officer, Jens Bischof said it has continued its steady growth with its strong financial structure for two years in a row. He added the airline will continue to be the “backbone of air travel for the Turkish tourism industry in 2019”.
SunExpress will have the largest fleet in its history with 83 aircraft in 2019, Bischof added: “The first five Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft of the 32 ordered, for delivery between 2019 and 2024, will join our fleet this April and May.
“We will also receive three Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft for SunExpress Germany as well as eight additional Airbus A320 to be placed into service on international flights departing from Antalya.”
